InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale ❯ Beatings and around the bush ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Ai-louij
The next dimension... well, you'll see

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Comedy / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.20.2005 | Pages: 7 | Words: 12.7K | Visits: 560 | Status: Completed

A parallel dimensional fairytale
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Chapter 5
Beatings and around the bush.
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Disclaimer: I'll admit it is highly tempting to claim that you own Inuyasha ... but imagine yourself being in Rumiko Takahashi's position: She holds the key to either heavenly bliss or endless damnation of an estimated, I don't know, billion Inuyasha maniacs in her hands, depending on how she ends the series... really it's no wonder she keeps it running and running, if I were her I'd probably have broken down under that pressure long ago. shudders So I am actually kinda glad I don't own him.

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As unpleasant as voyaging into her counterpart's conscience had been, leaving it again was a wonderful feeling, comparable only to... well she didn't really have anything to compare it to, but it sure felt good. Kagome remarked with curiosity how her vision slowly dulled until she could hardly make out Inuyasha anymore, although he stood right in front of her.
That jerk. Whatever he had been doing, he'd spent an awful lot of time on convincing that girl not to punish his counterpart, but when she'd just begun to worry he'd sneaked up on her, startled her, and had given the necklace to her. Very suspicious, but he'd sworn that things were settled between Keichii and the girl and she just hoped she could believe him.
It'd also taken her an awful lot of time figuring out what exactly she was supposed to do with the shard to bind it to her, and Inuyasha did in no way help, with his constant “You done yet, woman?” and “Can't be that fucking hard, now, can it?” and the likes. How could anyone possibly be that impatient? She'd been this short from snapping and shoving the shard down his throat when suddenly the constant tingling due to the nearness of the shard had intensified and she'd with a very ceremonial “Come on you stupid thing just connect with me, damnit!” managed to seal the fusion. The shard had lifted itself from her hands and had flown to her chest where it merged with her flesh about there where her collarbones met. She'd found it slightly unsettling, but Inuyasha had stared fascinatedly.
She had almost immediately begun to feel her soul detach itself from the body after that.
Half expecting to appear inside that nothingness room again she was surprised as her soul manifested right in front of Miroku and, sitting in an armchair again, Sango. The room was a different one though, it wasn't even an actual room she realised, but more like the remains of one, she was standing in the middle of a small, ancient Greek looking, ruin. Sango's armchair wasn't an actual armchair either, it was a throne, standing in between to pillars up a few stairs. Also she was wearing a white robe like an ancient Greek goddess and not the Kimono from before whereas Miroku was still clad into the same purple and black dress she'd gotten to know him in. He smiled when he saw her.
“Ah, Kagome, I'm delighted to see you again.” He held the same gilded staff in his hands he'd used before, when he'd sent them into the first dimension. When she'd asked why Sango wasn't the one working the magic he'd explained that SHE'd 'bestowed the power to absolve such simple tasks on him to spare her the energy she so desperately needs to hold the more and more destabilising universe together'. “In short “ Sango had interrupted him “He's helping me lessening my migraine.”
“Hya.” Said deity greeted with an indifferent motion of her hand.
“Hello.” Kagome answered and tried to take a step forwards, but her knees wobbled.
Miroku nodded friendlily. “Give your soul some time to recollect itself in the way it remembers to be before you move around. You don't want to get hurt.”
What a weird bunch those two were. Sango appeared so demotivated and bored it was hard to believe she really was the creator of all life, (and where gods supposed to suffer from chronic headaches?) and Miroku was just so a little too cheerful. Besides, what was he doing here anyway? He'd said he was dead, just like Inuyasha and her, so why wasn't his soul being reborn? From what he'd told them back in the soul store room he'd been spending centuries here in this interdimension. Kagome was about to just be blunt and ask him when Inuyasha began to appear left to her.
The scowl on his face probably indicated that however her counterpart had reacted to regaining her mind and body right in front of a member of the gender she so entirely loathed, if what her girlfriend said was true, she seemed to have taken it out on him. But Kagome would rather have gone and pinch Sango's nose than ask him, although SHE claimed to be an almighty goddess that could probably just wipe her out for such a lack of respect. 'No way.' she thought as his image lost its last flickers and blurry patches. His eyes were screaming murder.
But even though he really wasn't that much of a happy bunny at the moment a part of her squealed when his ears flicked towards her and then towards the two other occupants of the ruin, followed by his eyes as he once again scanned the area. 'Cute.' Someone said inside her head but Kagome officially begged to differ. Tsk.
“How wonderful to see you both reassembled here safe and sound.” Miroku now officially greeted them. “And my congratulations, you solved your first task with expertise. SHE is highly content.” Sango gave a nod. Miroku continued. “Kagome, you were doing great for a miko with no experience at all, which proves what immense power your soul must contain, and you Inuyasha - “ To her surprise Kagome heard Inuyasha growl. But Miroku seemed oblivious to the hanyou's obvious anger. “Good job.” he finished.
Sango lifted herself from her throne. “Yeah, right, seeing as you've done so well I'd say we loose no time getting you into the next dimension.”
“Absolutely, my dear mistress,” Miroku agreed.
'Those two' it occurred to Kagome all of a sudden “could they possibly...?”
But the goddesses servant, or of whatever kind his relationship with her was, ripped her out of her wondering immediately. “Though, as the next dimension, much like all of the remaining eleven, differs greatly from yours and the one you just visited, I will have to tell you a little bit about it's workings before you enter.”
Sango joined them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Take a seat.”
And within the blink of an eye the scenery around them changed into that of a futuristic looking, well, room, with a round table and four chairs around it. Inuyasha went into what Kagome secretly called 'rabbit mode' again, because the way he frantically glanced around, especially now, with his ears accompanying his eyes, he reminded her of the way rabbits composed themselves all of the time.
'He's really constantly on the edge.' she mused.
They sat down around the table and Miroku hit a few buttons on a control panel in front of him. The lights went out and something like a 3D hologram flared into life in the middle of the table.
Kagome sighed and decided to just stop wondering for now and listen to whatever he had to say, as did Inuyasha. She'd just ask about the room shifting another time.
The hologram showed a globe.
“This is a simplified model of the dimension that is your next destination. As you can see - “ The globe began to rotate slightly. “The continental shapes are basically the same, but the whole planet is still mainly covered with forest and other wilderness, civilisation has not progressed as far as it has in your dimension at this point of time. The technological standard could be compared to that of the early European Middle Ages, they have ploughs, but no winter crop. The main difference though, lies in the population.” The image faded as Miroku hit another button. He elaborated: “The fauna contains of animals that are roughly the same as those you both are used to on the one hand, but there are about as many represents of the youkai subspecies, youkai whose animal heritage overweights any other influence on the other hand. Well, seeing as you, Inuyasha, know how to deal with those I dare say that they will not pose that much of a problem.” Inuyasha kehed.
“The most significant difference of all you will find with the humanoid population.” Another button, another hologram. Four persons, two men and two women, but the couples differed quite remarkably in height rotated slowly. “The humanoid population is divided into two subspecies that are best described as... well, giants and dwarfs. The one species, who, in the region where the Shikon no Kakera is situated, call themselves Kerumna, averagely reaches but a height of around five feet and is of a rather sturdy built -” He indicated the smaller of the couples, “Whereas the other species, who runs by the name of Moasi Terna has never brought forth offspring that did not grow to a measure of around eight or nine feet, and is characterized by slender limbs.
You see, the differences between each of the species do not make them what I would call incompatible, but their relation is hardly amicable. What the Kerumna are lacking in height is compensated by their sheer number, which outmatches that of the reluctantly reproducing giants by far, the Moasi Terna on the other hand are not only taller but also physically stronger in a way that contradicts their fragile built.
In short, both fear the other, and humanoids were never known to cope very well with their fears.” The image faded and the lights went on again slowly.
“As far as we know the shard is currently the most prized possession of a grand spider youkai living in a ruin situated in a forest that marks the boundary between Kerumna and Moasi Terna territory. Your counterparts are both living in an Kerumna village at the outskirts of the forest. With your ability to sense the Shikon no Tama, Kagome, you should have no trouble finding the ruin.”
“So if I got that right I'll be fighting a giant spider youkai over it's precious with the body of a dwarf? Are you kidding me?” Inuyasha's gaze switched from Sango to Miroku and from bewilderment to anger. “Like that wimpy body I had in the last dimension wasn't useless enough!”
“Inuyasha, I can assure you, were SHE to assume that you are simply not able to fend for both of you in that dimension SHE wouldn't be sending you in. You were specifically chosen for Kagome's protection and of course SHE also made sure that each of your counterparts offers a body fit for that task. SHE would have simply chosen another soul had yours been inadequate in that way.”
That seemed to calm him somewhat. “But still, a fucking dwarf?”
Miroku smiled conspiratorially. “Well, I never actually said that your counterpart was a dwarf, did I?”
“Whatever.” Inuyasha leaned back in his chair
“Am I going to be a dwarf?” Kagome heard herself ask. She really wasn't too keen on being that small either.
“Yes.” Miroku nodded.
“Aww.”
“Keh!”
“What's that supposed to mean - Keh?” was he making fun of her again?
“You're a midget anyway, what's the big deal? You'd be what - ten or fifteen centimetres smaller?” He was, that jerk. And there she'd thought there was something like a peace agreement going on between them. He had behaved somewhat social on the second day in the dimension. Well, he asked for pointless bickering, he sure as hell was gonna get it!
“Who are you calling a midget? At least I'm not in constant danger of hitting my head somewhere. By the looks of it, I'd say that's happened to you one too many times!”
He stood, bracing his one hand on the table as he glared down at her.
“At least I'm not sticking my nose where it doesn't belong all of the time!”
What was that supposed to - Ooh the nerve of him! He had been the one to tell her about himself voluntarily!She, too, stood and glared up at him defiantly.
“At least I'm no screwed up alcoholic!”
Inuyasha cringed. Touché. Though she felt bad about having said that immediately. Then he got that scary look about his eyes again.
“At least I'm no fucked up, delusional, hypocrite bitch, who is abusing her counterpart's body to live out her pent up homosexual fantasies!”
'What's he thinking? That I liked loosing my first kiss to a stranger, girl or not?' Kagome wanted to claw his eyes out. Wait! What was holding her back? She launched herself at him.
She was so furious, she couldn't even really tell why. What he said was rude, and she knew he said it just to hurt her, but that was only part of it. Maybe she was most of all mad at him because she just couldn't figure him out. One second he was so... calm, almost soft and she found it hard not to like him and the next he was the carnation of ill temper and anger management weaknesses and she found it hard not to despise him.
Just as she reached up to yank at one of his ears and he moved to prevent her from doing it a voice suddenly stopped them dead in their tracks.
“STOP IT THIS INSTANT!” They whirled around to the source, Sango, to find her glaring at them with such a furious heat Kagome thought she saw actual flames burning around her like an overzealous halo. Miroku had his head leaned against the table and was shaking with uncontrolled laughter.
Sango never left her chair but Kagome still felt overwhelmed by her presence, like either she was shrinking or Sango was growing. And Inuyasha wasn't all that better off, a quick side glance confirmed, he looked like he wanted to find out how far his head could retreat between his shoulders and she thought she even heard him whimpering.
“IF YOU THINK THAT YOUR CONSTANT QUARRELING IS DOING ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THE STATE OF MY HEAD THAN YOU ARE GRAVELY MISTAKEN! ANOTHER LOUD WORD FROM EITHER OF YOU AND YOU'LL BOTH BE REBORN AS WORMS!”
Miroku peeled his head off the table. “What SHE means, “ he explained shuddering with the effort to stop giggling, “is that SHE is able to block out the aggravation of all her souls only as long as they are inside the dimensions. As soon as they enter the interdimension a large emotional outbreak of any kind feels to her like her head - “ he made quotation signs with his fingers “ - 'is a friggin' coal mine for all the detonations and hammering going on inside there.' So you are asked to keep your temper in check.”
“Ok.” Kagome sat down, mainly to hide her shaking knees.
“Keh!” Inuyasha also dropped onto his chair. “'twas her fault anyway.” he murmured.
Kagome felt her hackles rising again. “Excuse me?”
“I said it was - ”
“SHUT MOTHERFUCKING FUCK UP!” This time Kagome was positive that Sango was surrounded by flames. She even felt the heat on her skin.
“Sango, sweetheart, calm down please.” Miroku hurried to her side.
'Those two-' Kagome started again. 'Are they...?'
But Miroku interrupted her - again. “I would say it would be for the best if you went into the next dimension as soon as possible. You know what you need to know now. Just go and find the Shikon no Kakera.”
“Ah yes, about that.” Kagome suddenly remembered. “What do I do with the one we already have? I mean it's stuck in my body right now, but I can't possibly take it with me, can I?”
“Au contraire, you do. We are going to recollect the shards inside your body, it's free to move as long as it is connected to you. Plus -” He smiled encouragingly. “If you have it with you it'll be a lot easier to locate who or whatever owns the shards inside the dimensions. They'll be attracted by it's power.”
He was saying that like it was a good thing. “But isn't it going to attract all other kinds of youkai, too?”
His smile grew. Then he suddenly pulled forth his staff. “I'd say you go in first this time, alright?” She opened her mouth to protest, he'd simply ignored her question, damnit! But her body, or what her soul thought was her body, began to dissolve already. Grand.
Taking over the conscious of her counterpart felt just as terrible as it had the first time but Kagome just shrugged the uneasy feeling off. She was too curious about this new dimension that was said to be oh so different from what she used to know.
The first of her senses to work was her hearing, there were voices all around, and sounds of animals, 'like a market' she thought. Then her nose was assaulted with an overwhelming melange of smells, most of them rather unpleasant. She smelled wood and earth, old sweat and fresh sweat, dust, a stink she recognised from the one time she'd been in a cowshed and mingled in between all of those odours was that of smoke, of burning wood.
The feeling of her body came the same time as her sight did, but she just opened her eyes and was clever enough to remain in the position she found herself in. She was squatted down in the shadow of a small hut that was, she figured as she looked around, part of the village Miroku had been talking about. Ahead of her was a small square, surrounded by huts, and with a well of some kind in the middle. There were quite some people around, but she'd been wrong about the market, most of the people were women fetching water from the well and children running around, playing.
She stood carefully, but the fusion was complete. When she saw how close the ground still was, even though she'd stretched to her full height, she felt like dropping down again. She really was a dwarf! And not only that, she realised as a woman passed her with two buckets of water, she was even small for a dwarf! All that lead to but one conclusion: she was a little dwarf girl. How cute. She sighed. At least the jerk of jerks, Inuyasha, would suffer the same... or would he? Hadn't Miroku said that he was no dwarf? Woohoo! More cunning remarks about her height.
Inuyasha, that was right. How was she supposed to find him? They hadn't had the time to set a place to meet or anything, she didn't even know what he'd look like! All because Miroku had all but thrown them into the new dimension. What to do?
A yell from between the huts on the opposite of the small square ripped her out of her worries.
“There he is hiding! Get him!”
She ran towards the commotion and arrived besides the well just in time to see a figure exiting one of the huts and a small mob of what she assumed were dwarf children, as their faces looked younger than those of the women around, and at least some of them were smaller, storming towards the figure. As said figure, a boy she guessed despite his ruffled long hair, straightened up Kagome gasped. That boy looked awfully young , but was still a good foot or even two taller than anyone around. What made him stand out even more was that his hair was pitch black, whereas everyone else had light hair, varying from from reddish brown - she pulled forth a strand of her own to look at it - , such as herself to very light blonde.
'Is that one of the giants? What's he doing here?'
The giant boy seemed to look for the best way out, then decided and started running across the square. His long and skinny legs all but catapulted him away from his persecutors, and it looked like he'd outrun them with ease. Kagome sighed in relief as he passed right beside her. Whatever he'd done, if he'd done anything at all, he was clearly outmatched, and she didn't like unfairnesses like that.
But then suddenly his graceful strides began to falter, he staggered, then stopped. The mob began closing in on him again and Kagome couldn't help but run over, too. 'Run!' she tried to tell him.
But the boy just tensed, turned and - went into 'rabbit mode'!
'Oh no, Inuyasha?'
Kagome sped up. But the mob reached him before her. Without further ado, but with a few inarticulate screams, they hurled themselves at him. He went down under the force of the about twelve children crashing into him, Kagome reckoned that his soul still hadn't completely taken over the body, which of course did in no way make defending himself any easier.
She came to a halt besides the tangle of limbs and muffled screams. She still wasn't completely sure that the giant boy really was Inuyasha's counterpart but there was only one way to find out:
“Inuyasha?” She asked tentatively. But a fist of unknown origin hit the boy's face that moment.
She raised her voice a little.” Inuyasha, is that you?”
The boy seemed to perk up as much as his position allowed, but he might just as well have been tensing at another hit.
Kagome decided it was time she did something, whether that boy was Inuyasha or nor, he needed help. Remembering Sango's very efficient technique she took a deep breath.
“STOP IT!”
A few heads shot up at her screaming, and the overall wrestling seemed to slow down a little.
“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”
One of the dwarfs was smart enough to look for the source of the interruption. He stared at her surprisedly for a second then grinned.
“Raine? What's your problem?”
What her problem was? Brat.
“You're hurting him!”
The boy shrugged. “So what? He's filth, he's a freak. What do you care?”
Gah, this was getting her nowhere. She chose the only reasonable course of action: Throwing herself into the tangle and untangling it by force.
“Inuyasha! Is that really you? Come on, let's get rid of those jerks and look for the shard.!”
She kicked the dwarf closest to her in the shin.
“Kagome?” The boy began to rouse but was plummeted by the kids all over again. His lip was bleeding - again. Kagome tried to pry one of the smaller children off him but no avail, she was still even smaller than the smallest of them. Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. 'Not again.' she thought as she was hurled to the ground by the boy she'd spoken to moments ago.
“What's gotten into you, Raine? You feelin' sorry for that scum? Mind your own fucking business!”
But Kagome was far from that. “No, leave him be I say!” She stood and shoved the boy away. “ The bunch of you against one that's just unfair!”
She was grabbed and brought to fall again. The boy laughed, a hard snicker. “Unfair? Against that monster? You wanna know what's unfair? That that traitor Moasi whore who gave birth to this freak didn't drown him right away! That's what!”
Kagome was at a loss of words, out of fury and confusion. Was Inuyasha's counterpart some kind of a half dwarf - half giant, something like a hanyou, too?
But before she could ask, or realise that asking maybe wasn't that much of a good idea, pain shot through her side. The boy had kicked her!
“You wanna be a Mosai bitch, too? Is that why you're taking his side?”
Kagome squeaked and clutched her side. That hurt like hell, what on earth had he hit? She felt something warm seeping through the fabric of her robe.
“I'm bleeding?”
“Ooops, sorry. I forgot you just had that accident.” the boy snickered with mock guilt. Then, to Kagome's horror, he moved to kick her again. She closed her eyes and curled up to brace herself for the hit.
But it never came. Instead she heard some screams and odd noises, then a cracking sound that was familiar. She opened one eye and was only able to take in a few fallen dwarf youngsters when she was suddenly lifted off the ground and carried away from the square at high speed. She screamed.
“Shut the fuck up woman, I just saved your wimpy hide!”
Looking down than up she realised that Inuyasha was her kidnapper - that is if he really was that giant boy.
“Inuyasha?”
“Who do you think I am?” She felt him tense, then he jumped. She squeaked. Inuyasha sighed.
“If you're gonna continue freaking out with every move I make I'll drop you!”
“Nooo.” She reached for something to hold on to but her arms were to short to reach around his torso. She grabbed his arm instead. He had her cradled to his chest and so she glanced around his shoulder to see where they were. Just leaving the village it seemed. She glanced over her own shoulder to see where they were going to. Right into that river ahead of them if Inuyasha didn't change course soon it seemed. Reminding herself not to scream she pulled at his shirt.
“Umm, Inuyashaaaaah!”
He'd simply jumped across the river. When he landed the pain in her side flared up again. She felt a little dizzy but she kept to herself. She wasn't about to let herself be dropped.
Inuyasha sped up even more and stormed towards the forest that lay behind some fields with corn like plants growing on them. After they had entered the forest the pain in her side was suddenly joined by a familiar yet strange new feeling: she could faintly sense a shard.
“Inuyasha!” she yelled excitedly.
“Gah!” He must have been absent or something because she startled him so. He staggered and lost his balance right in the middle of a large jump. She clutched his arm tighter but he didn't drop her. He fell to the ground and rolled over his shoulder, all the while cushioning her with his arms and chest. When he stood again though, he put her down.
“Are you out of your fucking mind, woman?”
But she found it hard to focus on him - in fact it was kind of hard to even remain standing on her feet. She fell onto her behind, black spots dancing before her eyes.
“Fuck! When did that happen!” Inuyasha crouched down in front of her. Gee, he was still awfully tall. He tentatively touched her side. The pain intensified. Kagome looked down to find a dark blossom on her robe. Was that her blood?
“Let me see!” Inuyasha reached out to - open the bindings of her robe?
“Hentai!” She swatted his hand away.
“Jeez, woman, you're hurt! I need to have a look at your wound, damnit!” He opened the rope that was slung around her hip. She scrambled backwards. That pervert! Taking advantage of the fact that she was smaller - wait, taking advantage? Panic surged in her. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand to keep her still, with the other he began to lift the skirt of her one piece robe. She screamed and wiggled.
“Fucking hold still!”
She managed to plant a kick onto his upper arm, but he seemed unfazed by it. Then he grabbed both of her shoulders and stilled her completely. He brought his face to the same level as hers and looked her straight into the eye.
“Kagome.” He said in a strained but calm voice. “You are hurt and I'll have to take a look at your wound, you're loosing too much blood. Besides, you have the body of a fucking five year old there is absolutely nothing to see.”
The dizziness overwhelmed her again. She glanced down and took in her flat chest and round belly, then the dark spot on her side. She calmed down. He was probably right.
“Ok?”
“Ok.”
He helped her stand and pulled the robe over her head, there was a short argument when they both realised that she was wearing absolutely nothing under it, but he and the pain won. The wound proved to be a large cut or gash about the span of a hand, her hand, in length, running from the underside of her rips to her hip. According to Inuyasha it was maybe about a week old, a little less more like, it had been stitched up with a rather thick thread and had healed alright, but reopened when 'that filthy sonofabitch' kicked her. Inuyasha carried her to a small river nearby, all the while she pressed her robe against the wound to still the bleeding and cleansed the cut carefully. Kagome was confused once again at this open display of concern. There was that other side of him, the one she found hard not to like. He bandaged her with is shirt, which was little more than a rag anyway, and it wasn't until he took it off that Kagome realised how awfully skinny his counterpart was. Skinny and covered in scars.
She reached out to touch one on his chest.
“Do you think the dwarfs did that to him?”
He pulled away slightly but didn't stop bandaging her. “Keh!”
She glanced up but he wasn't looking at her. “Keh?”
“Well, what'd it look like back in the village? Like he did that to himself?”
“No, I -”
He glanced down at her and she was taken aback by the raw hurt in his, for the time being, moss green eyes. “Mixed breeds are -” He shook his head and stood abruptly. “There, done.” He was finished wrapping her wound. But what has he been about to say?
“It's getting dark and you shouldn't be moving around too much now .”
She looked up to see he was right. The light that seeped through the branches, twigs and leaves had turned pink already.
“So I'd say we go spend the night here and go looking for that damned spider tomorrow.”
“Fine by me.” Kagome really did not feel like moving around a lot anyway. But that didn't go for her mind. 'Mixed breeds are -'. She repeated silently as she put on her robe. Was this what his life had been like? She remembered what he'd told her about his age. If he'd grown up around seven hundred years ago in Japan then he probably had been persecuted just like his counterpart was. People of the Middle Ages weren't exactly famous for their tolerance.
'Humanoids were never known to cope very well with their fears' Miroku had said earlier. 'That's true' she thought sadly.
She silently watched Inuyasha's back as he moved around and collected twigs and fallen branches, probably to make a fire. Suddenly he perked up and looked at her.
“What?”
“N-nothing, I was just... wondering whether we'll somehow manage to get something to eat.”
As if on cue her stomach started growling that very moment. She hadn't even realised she was hungry until now.
He relaxed. “Yeah, I was going to look for some fish in that river. I guess I can't leave you alone here to go hunting with you smelling of blood like that.”
“Are you sure that's possible without a net or something? It's getting darker by the minute.”
“I know, I'll just finish making the fire.”
He assembled the wood he'd collected to an even pile, with some dry leaves and fine twigs beneath it, then asked for the rope around her hips. Kagome watched in awe as he built a contraption out of the rope, a stick, a stone and a dry piece of bark that Kagome remembered from a picture in one of her history books - in the chapter about prehistoric cultures. It took him quite some minutes, but not half as long as she had anticipated, to really make fire with that thing. He stood and dusted off his hands. Then he turned to her again.
“I couldn't find any flint around here, so I had to improvise.” he explained, she really must have been gawking at him.
“Keep an eye on the fire.” he strode towards the river.
“Kay.” She scooted closer to the fire, unsure what was really asked of her.
“Just blow it or fan it with your hands every once in a while.” came another explanation. He really must have been thinking she was stupid or something. But she forgot to be irritated at him or her own ineptness when the fire flared higher and cast it's spell of fearful fascination on her, like it always did, on the rare occasions when she actually encountered an open fire. She stared into the flames as their heat first only brushed her skin, then seemed to seep into her, warming her to the core. She shuddered blissfully. She just loved fire.
She was ripped out of her stupor as two large fish were dropped in front of her.
“Eeeep!” The fish were still wiggling, spraying cold droplets of water onto her warm skin. Inuyasha sat down at the opposite of the fire. He was peeling the bark off of a thin stick.
“Kill them and gut them! I'll make something to roast them on:”
“Eeew, no! I can't kill them! And I don't even have a knife! How am I supposed to gut them?”
Inuyasha sighed. Then he stood, grumbling about spoiled brats and having to do things yourself if you wanted them done properly. Kagome seethed. It wasn't her fault that she hadn't been born into a time where being able to kill and gut a fish with your bare hands was an obligatory skill!
She pointed that out to Inuyasha as he took the fish and sat down again.
“That doesn't make you any less spoiled.” He killed both fish with a stone, then opened them with a splinter of it. Kagome almost forgot about his insult as she watched, torn between fascination and disgust as he carefully pulled out their organs. She'd seen that done before, often actually, her mother liked to cook fresh fish, but never with quite such archaic methods and speed.
She almost forgot but not actually. But how was she supposed to counter that? Maybe from his point of view she really was spoiled - No! She was doing the understanding thing again, she hated that sometimes. She had a feeling that she was all to willing and able to identify with people, even jerks such as Inuyasha. Jerk... then it occurred to her: he'd taken care of her when she was hurt, carried her around and sacrificed his shirt for her, and she hadn't even said that you or anything. No wonder he was a little irritated. Kagome sighed.
“Thanks.”
“Huh?” Inuyasha looked up from the tricky task of spearing the now gutted fish with a blunt stick and shot her a inquisitive glare. He probably thought she was thanking him for calling her spoiled.
“You know, for saving me from the second kick and taking care of my wound.” Her voice cracked slightly, it really sounded awfully high and childish. That unnerved her right then, somehow. Inuyasha stared at her, and she stared right back. 'His eyes -' she suddenly remarked 'they look almost golden again with the fire reflecting from them.' She became even more flustered when she realised that she'd thought that on her own and that no other part of her conscious could be held responsible for that.
“It's my job.”
“Huh?” She'd been so lost in her thoughts that she'd forgotten she'd been talking to him.
“It's my job, I'm only stuck with this shit cause it's the only thing I'm good at, y' know, surviving and such.”
Kagome couldn't help feeling the flimsiest bit disappointed. Of course, if you put it that way, protecting her was his job. And what was 'this shit' supposed to mean? She just had thought that maybe...
She brushed all those thoughts aside quickly and focussed on her new hobby instead: figuring Inuyasha out... okay so that wasn't really brushing all those thoughts aside, but still.
“Sooo..”
He snorted as he stuck the sticks with the fish into the ground so they hung over the flames.
“Sooo..?” Ok, so she was sticking her nose where it possibly didn't belong sometimes. Nevermind.
Her plan was simple: she'd initiate innocent small talk, starting with his most recent experiences and going back in time until they reached the interesting parts, like his ban, or the time before.
“So you've really been living in Germany before you died? What's it like there?”
He shrugged. “I lived in Berlin, the former capital, so it wasn't really typically German around there. Large cities always are a little bit of everyhing. But it was ok, I guess.”
“And what are the people like?”
“Grumpy, especially if you lived in America before and compared the two countries, but that was also because of the Cold War. I guess most of them were just afraid. I mean, you could see the USSR if you just climbed onto the wall. The blokes I hung around with were different, though. I arrived there about the time punk arrived from the UK.”
“You mean you were one of them?” Kagome found it a little hard to picture Inuyasha as a punk, mohawk, security needles, leather jacket and all.
“Nah, they were just fun to party with. And they all looked so fucking weird that no-one gave a shit about what I looked- ah nevermind.”
“You mean your hair and the ears and that?”
“Yeah that. Not the ears, of course. No one ever saw those.” He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide.
“What did you do for a living, then?”
“Different stuff. Building houses 'n stuff, physical work, you know? The things you can do without a proper education.”
“You've no education? As in: never been to school?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide.
“What else did you do? Except building houses, I mean.”
“Stuff, like I said. At first I was a bouncer, that was fun.”
“A bouncer?”
“Yeah, you know the guy who's standing at the entrance of clubs and can decide who gets to go in and, and that's the fun part, who can throw people out if they misbehave.”
'Figures.' Kagome thought. Now that was something she could easily picture him doing. Throwing people out of clubs.
“But how did you manage to get that job? If you only just arrived then you can't have been talking that much German already.”
To her surprise he laughed. “That's true, I figured as much, so I asked someone who spoke English what 'I'm here to apply for the job as a bouncer.' was in German, and went there.”
“And then what? I mean that's not all you had to say to get the job, right?”
He chuckled again.”No, that was all I said.”
“Yeah right.”
“Seriously. They wanted to send me away at first when they realised that was about everything I was able to say, except for 'bitte' and 'danke' maybe. So I simply went up to some guy who stood around there, a bouncer as well I guessed, you know, like, I don't know, six feet six tall and built like a bull, and I just threw him across my shoulder with one arm, carried him to the desk of the guy who owned that club and dropped him there. Then, ok so I said something else, but in English, I said: 'Isn't that already about all I need to do?' “
Now Kagome was laughing, too. For all she knew about him, that was a very Inuyasha way of approaching difficulties.
Inuyasha shrugged. “ Well. that convinced them. The owner actually laughed his ass off about it. He was an ok guy even though he was a pim- ah nevermind.” He suddenly seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide. Gah! Wasn't there anything unproblematic to talk about? What had been about to say anyway?
“So, if you lived in Germany that long, I guess you're rather good at speaking German.”
“I never really got very good at it, I spent most of my time alone. The occasional 'I must ask you to leave.' and 'Hand me the cement, man.' wasn't really improving anything. My accent is awful.“ He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that but she just decided to ignore that this time.
“But you do know something, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“So, say something.”
He looked at her blankly. “What do you want to know?”
“Dunno, just something.”
“Mädel, da musste schon 'n bisschen genauer sagen waste von mir hören willst.”
“Was that German?”
“Yup.”
“What'd you say?”
“I said you were gonna have to be a little more specific about what you want me to say.”
“Nah, that's stupid, say something interesting.”
“Sei ruhig und iss deinen Fisch!” He suddenly shoved one of the fish at her, they were obviously done. She grabbed it by the stick.
“I guess that was German, too?”
“Yeah, I told you to shut up and eat your fish.”
That he didn't have to tell her twice. She'd just postpone the subtle Spanish inquisition. She was dead hungry now. As was Inuyasha, by the sounds of it. He was currently swearing cause he burnt his mouth with the still very hot fish. She peeled off the scalded skin and blew onto the flesh. It smelled - well fishy - but delicious to her food deprived body. She took a careful bite and found it to taste accordingly.
They finished their meal in no time, and as the sun had sunk completely quite a while ago Inuyasha suggested that they go to sleep, or rather, that she sleep and he stay awake to guard their little camp. Kagome protested weakly, said they should split the watch, but her continuing yawning undermined her argumentation. In the end she just gave in and curled up close to the fire. She was with Orpheus within but a minute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~& #194; 
 
“Kagome, wake up.”
At first she thought she was still dreaming, but when the hand on her shoulder wouldn't stop stirring her she figured that someone really wanted her awake. 'What's up?' She meant to inquire, but it came out more like
“Wzp?”
“Wake up already, woman.”
Kagome blinked.
“'n'yassa?”
“Yeah, damnit. Move!”
She sat up groggily. It was still completely dark, why on earth was Inuyasha disturbing her sleep?
“What's up?” There, now she'd gotten it right.
Instead of answering he clamped a hand over her mouth, nah, over her face more like, his hand was just as insanely large as the rest of his counterpart's body.
“Listen!” he whispered.
She complied. What was he up to? She didn't hear a goddamn thing.
“Pfmpf!" she pointed out.
“That's right, I don't hear a fucking thing either. And that's bad, that's really bad.”
He released her mouth. “Not a word. Stay put!” And he swished away into the darkness.
Kagome stared into the gleaming remains of the fire. So it was quiet, where was the problem? She listened again. Ok, that total lack of sound was a little spooky. She couldn't even make out the occasional rustle in the undergrowth one of the many night active animals might have caused. But still... then suddenly she knew what Inuyasha's problem was. The calm meant that none of the animals was moving, and they only ever did that when they sensed danger. Danger in the form of a larger animal, a carnivore. Or in this dimension a youkai. Duh!
Kagome instinctively scooted closer to the fire.
“Inuyasha?” She whispered. Where was that jerk, damnit?
Suddenly she heard a noise. Something clickered behind her.
She peered into the darkness.
“Inuyasha?”
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AN.: Wow! It took me only, like, a week (or even less?) to finish this chapter, that's an incredible record for me! Bring on the champaign!
No seriously, I'm just on my Easter holidays, that's why I've so much time. So better don't get used to it cause school's gonna have my ass plus the very reluctant rest back on Monday.
*whines* .
Phrase I feel I used too often in this chapter: sth. occurred to someone . I just like the sound of it.
K, there's some German in this chapter, I think it's fun playing with the languages a little, though my repertoire only contains French, German, English of course, and a little Latin. Whatever.
Btw if any of you, for whatever reasons, like for a story, needs a translation into German that's better than what google has to offer, feel free to mail me or something. I mean I live there after all... and I get so little mail...
Hah! You thought I was done chattering?
Also, seeing as I now have first hand experience on how a constructive review can improve my writing, review pretty, pretty please!
Now that's it.